Previously, setting up the video card was the job of the X server. Because of this, it was not easily possible to have fancy graphics in virtual consoles. Also, each time a switch from X to a virtual console was made ({{ic|Ctrl+Alt+F1}}), the server had to give control over the video card to the kernel, which was slow and caused flickering. The same "painful" process happened when the control was given back to the X server ({{ic|Ctrl+Alt+F7}}).

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Previously, setting up the video card was the job of the X server. Because of this, it was not easily possible to have fancy graphics in [[Linux console#virtual consoles]]. Also, each time a switch from X to a virtual console was made ({{ic|Ctrl+Alt+F2}}), the server had to give control over the video card to the kernel, which was slow and caused flickering. The same "painful" process happened when the control was given back to the X server ({{ic|Alt+F7}} when X runs in VT7).

With Kernel Mode Setting (KMS), the kernel is now able to set the mode of the video card. This makes fancy graphics during bootup, virtual console and X fast switching possible, among other things.

With Kernel Mode Setting (KMS), the kernel is now able to set the mode of the video card. This makes fancy graphics during bootup, virtual console and X fast switching possible, among other things.

Kernel Mode Setting (KMS) is a method for setting display resolution and depth in the kernel space rather than user space.

The Linux kernel's implementation of KMS enables native resolution in the framebuffer and allows for instant console (tty) switching. KMS also enables newer technologies (such as DRI2) which will help reduce artifacts and increase 3D performance, even kernel space power-saving.

Note: The proprietary NVIDIA driver (since 364.12) also implements kernel mode-setting, but it does not use the built-in kernel implementation and it lacks an fbdev driver for the high-resolution console.

Contents

Background

Previously, setting up the video card was the job of the X server. Because of this, it was not easily possible to have fancy graphics in Linux console#virtual consoles. Also, each time a switch from X to a virtual console was made (Ctrl+Alt+F2), the server had to give control over the video card to the kernel, which was slow and caused flickering. The same "painful" process happened when the control was given back to the X server (Alt+F7 when X runs in VT7).

With Kernel Mode Setting (KMS), the kernel is now able to set the mode of the video card. This makes fancy graphics during bootup, virtual console and X fast switching possible, among other things.

Installation

At first, note that for any method you use, you should always disable:

Any vga= options in your bootloader as these will conflict with the native resolution enabled by KMS.

Any video= lines that enable a framebuffer that conflicts with the driver.

Problem upon bootloading and dmesg

Polling for connected display devices on older systems can be quite expensive. Poll will happen periodically and can in worst cases take several hundred milliseconds, depending on the hardware. This will cause visible stalls, for example in video playback. These stalls might happen even when your video is on HDP output but you have other non HDP outputs in your hw configuration. If you experience stalls in display output occurring every 10 seconds, disabling polling might help.

If you see an error code of 0x00000010 (2) while booting up, (you will get about 10 lines of text, the last part denoting that error code), use:

/etc/modprobe.d/modprobe.conf

options drm_kms_helper poll=0

Forcing modes and EDID

If your native resolution is not automatically configured or no display at all is detected, then your monitor might send none or just a skewed EDID file. The kernel will try to catch this case and will set one of the most typical resolutions.

In case you have the EDID file for your monitor you merely not to explicitly enforce it (see below). However most often one does not have direct access to sane file and it is necessary to either extract an existing one and fix it or to generate a new one.

Generating new EDID binaries for various resolutions and configurations is possible during kernel compilation by following the upstream documentation (also see here for a short guide). Other solutions are outlined in detail this article.
Extracting an existing one is in most cases easier, e.g. if your monitor works fine under Windows you might have luck extracting the EDID from the corresponding driver, or if a similar monitor works which has the same settings you may use get-edid from the read-edid package.

After having prepared your EDID place it in a folder, e.g. called edid under /usr/lib/firmware and copy your binary into it.

or alternatively (since kernel 4.15), one may also enforce the EDID information on a lower level, using:

drm.edid_firmware=edid/your_edid.bin

In order to apply it only to a specific monitor use:

drm_kms_helper.edid_firmware=VGA-1:edid/your_edid.bin

For the built-in resolutions, refer to the table below. The Name column specifies the name which one is supposed to use in order to enforce its usage.

Resolution

Name

800x600

edid/800x600.bin

1024x768

edid/1024x768.bin

1280x1024

edid/1280x1024.bin

1600x1200 (kernel 3.10 or higher)

edid/1600x1200.bin

1680x1050

edid/1680x1050.bin

1920x1080

edid/1920x1080.bin

If you are doing early KMS, you must include the custom EDID file in the initramfs, otherwise you will run into problems.

Forcing modes

Warning: The method described below is somehow incomplete because e.g. Xorg does not take into account the resolution specified, so users are encouraged to use the method described above. However, specifying resolution with video= command line may be useful in some scenarios.

Disabling modesetting

You may want to disable KMS for various reasons, such as getting a blank screen or a "no signal" error from the display, when using the Catalyst driver, etc. To disable KMS add nomodeset as a kernel parameter. See Kernel parameters for more info.

Along with nomodeset kernel parameter, for Intel graphics card you need to add i915.modeset=0 and for Nvidia graphics card you need to add nouveau.modeset=0. For Nvidia Optimus dual-graphics system, you need to add all the three kernel parameters (i.e. "nomodeset i915.modeset=0 nouveau.modeset=0").

Note: Some Xorg drivers will not work with KMS disabled. See the wiki page on your specific driver for details.